Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, May 2, 2024
My father-in-law showed me this picture he took of his old orchard truck with a wood cab. He said most people don’t believe he took this picture. But he has proof-of-ownership in the second picture with a Washington state title for a “26Chev”. He also has the original purchase receipt for $50, and he wrote a note included with the photo that says,
“This picture of my 1926 Chev truck was taken in 1962 and developed and printed in the Walla Walla College photo lab by Jerry Bramlett, owner.”
Shortly after this picture was taken, Jerry was drafted into the army where he was a medic in Germany during the cold war. He told me that he didn’t know what to do with his old pickup, so he towed it to a local antique car dealer to see if he could sell it. The dealer owner said he couldn’t sell it. So, Jerry asked if he could leave it on consignment. The dealer said no one would buy it but Jerry could leave it on the lot until he returned from the army.
After the army, Jerry went back to the dealer to get his old truck, but it was gone. He asked the dealer how much he sold it for. The dealer said he didn’t sell it, that someone came around the corner too fast and ran right into it and totaled it. So they hauled it away as junk. Jerry always wondered if that was what really happened.
The truck is gone but the story is still there. It makes me think about the stories in the Bible. There may not be physical evidence left of the things that took place, but people carefully wrote down the events so that we would know. We can compare stories and principles and develop a picture in our minds of what God is conveying to us.